Are you using the MediaCP to resell video channels to your customers? Then this article is a must read.
We’re now offering a revolutionary online video streaming platform designed first for hosting companies, with no servers or licenses involved. Designed specifically for your business to sell video streaming and not worry about managing servers, software or licenses. This is the only cloud based platform designed first for hosting companies.
This article is designed for hosting businesses selling video channels and consuming up around 5 TB of bandwidth per month. If you’re business is consuming more than this, I highly recommend considering the pros and cons of cloud video in your business or project and reaching out to our sales team.
How can MediaCP Cloud reduce costs?
For a business of any size, operating in the cloud simplifies your business overheads and can even save you some money.
- One Provider, Simple Billing – No more datacentres or dealing with multiple companies, our cloud costs consists of a flat fee paid each month.
- No Shock Bills – We’ve built in default limits to stop bill shock. Need more? Simply login to our client portal and follow a simple process to increase limits, or contact us for more information.
- No Service Fees – Since there are no servers involved there is no servicing, no maintenance, no software or server upgrades.
- Reduced Technical Requirements – Your business no longer needs to hire someone to manage servers or software, you can focus on growing your business and hiring customer service agents rather than engineers.
Comparing Operating Costs
The immediate cost to run the MediaCP with a Professional Streaming Engine (such as Wowza Streaming Engine) and Dedicated Server Hosting can cost over $300/mo for a VPS and at $450 per month with a dedicated server if you include adequate backups (you really should!).
When streaming with 3 TB or less per month, the MediaCP Cloud Video is either cheaper or similar to operating a budget VPS however you’ll be getting so much more out of the cloud then possible with on-premise (Global Broadcasting, CDN, etc).
| Product | Costs | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Private Server |
Server Cost - $60/mo MCP Video - $60/mo Wowza Streaming Engine - $195/mo Backups - $12/mo |
$327 Per Month |
| Dedicated Server |
Server Cost - $150+/mo MCP Video - $60/mo Wowza Streaming Engine - $195/mo Backups - $50/mo |
$455 Per Month |
| Cloud Video Premium |
No Server Cost Premium Plan - $149/mo Includes 2 TB Bandwidth + 1 TB Bandwidth - $60 |
$209 Per Month |
What about other costs?
When it comes to running your own server, there are many additional costs that may come up which are no longer relevant with a cloud platform. The below list is sure to be costing you each year.
- MediaCP Software Updates
- Server Migrations due to upgrades or system failures (recent CentOS 8 EOL is a great example of this).
- Wowza StreamLock Install or Renewal
- Service charges from the datacentre
- Premium Support from Wowza or Datacentres
- Server Admins or Technical Staff
Do I need to change billing and plans?
Absolutely not! Our Cloud Video platform is designed to give you freedom on how you bill your customers. You can continue billing with a fixed price model, for example a plan with 1 Channel and 1 TB bandwidth for $x per month.
Our new platform is flexible when it comes to billing, you can configure pricing for your customer plans in 3 different ways:
- Fixed Pricing – For example providing 1 Live Channel, 500 GB bandwidth for $x/month
- Metric Billing – Automatic billing per GB and per Channel
- Hybrid Billing – For example a plan that includes 5 Channels and 1 TB Bandwidth. If user exceeds 5 channels or 1TB Bandwidth then they will be billed per GB and per additional channel.
You can also choose which features to provide with each plan, including Stream Recording, DVR/Rewind, Channel Types and more.
What about larger bandwidth usage?
For larger bandwidth usage it’s time to think of the bigger picture and consider the benefits of the cloud video platform and the growth of your business or project.
A fixed pricing model (i.e., 1 channel w/500GB) limits your customers growth and limits your revenue generation. With the traditional model, your customer knows that there is a limit and will make sure they don’t use more than their limit.
What if your customer could create as many channels as they wanted, use as much bandwidth as they wanted without their service being cut off? Then they are billed automatically for their usage at the end of the month. Usage based plans as above give your customers more freedom to grow. When your customers use more than 1 channel, they will start generating more bandwidth and in turn more revenue for your business.
